Giant Days Vol. 5 (Giant Days, #5)

by John Allison

Going off to university is always a time of change and growth, but for Esther, Susan, and Daisy, things are about to get a little weird.Their freshman year is finally coming to a close and Daisy, Susan, and Esther say goodbye to Catterick Hall forever. Literally forever. It’s being bulldozed and re-purposed as a luxury dorm next semester. But as one door closes, another opens and between end of semester hookups, music festivals, and moving into their first home together, the life experiences are just getting started. Written by Eisner Award nominee John Allison (Bad Machinery, Scary Go Round) and illustrated by Max Sarin, Giant Days Volume 5 finishes off freshman year in style, collecting issues #17-20 of the Eisner and Harvey Award-nominated series.

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Giant Days Vol. 5 (Giant Days, #5) Review

November 2, 2016

Paul

Another wonderful volume of Giant Days has come to an end.Why five stars? Well, my friends, it's like this: I was feeling really rather arsed off with life, suffering from a nasty cellulitis infection with accompanying fever and nausea, the pending results of my bone density scan and MRI scan weighing heavily on my soul. Surely all but the most arseholish of arseholes would grant that this is enough to put a frown on most anybody's visage.BUT THEN! Then I read this little book and the exploits o Another wonderful volume of Giant Days has come to an end.Why five stars? Well, my friends, it's like this: I was feeling really rather arsed off with life, suffering from a nasty cellulitis infection with accompanying fever and nausea, the pending results of my bone density scan and MRI scan weighing heavily on my soul. Surely all but the most arseholish of arseholes would grant that this is enough to put a frown on most anybody's visage.BUT THEN! Then I read this little book and the exploits of our plucky yet somewhat clueless trio of heroines washed all my cares away and planted a great, big smile on my fuzzy, little face!THIS, my darlings, is damned fine comics as damned fine comics should be done! Kudos to Mr. Allison and his fabulous team of art pixies! Long may you run!Now I'd better read a mainstream superhero comic to counterbalance all this joy... It's just not British to be this happy...

As their first year at university ends, the girls prepare for summer. Daisy goes on an archaeological dig and encounters a mean professor, Esther and Ed take a job from Dean Thompson that seems too good to be true (and of course is), and Susan’s still not over McGraw. They reunite for an extremely muddy music festival before moving into their new place ready for the second year - if only their furniture weren’t held together by glue! Giant Days is still the jizz. It’s amazing how much John Allis As their first year at university ends, the girls prepare for summer. Daisy goes on an archaeological dig and encounters a mean professor, Esther and Ed take a job from Dean Thompson that seems too good to be true (and of course is), and Susan’s still not over McGraw. They reunite for an extremely muddy music festival before moving into their new place ready for the second year - if only their furniture weren’t held together by glue! Giant Days is still the jizz. It’s amazing how much John Allison crams into these relatively small volumes but they’re all killer, no filler! I loved all the stories without exception. I love how the characters are progressing with Daisy standing up for herself at the dig, to Esther and Ed’s will they/won’t they romance becoming briefly, dangerously will they, to Susan’s nefarious Northampton past rearing its fire-breathing face once more, this time in the form of The Cowboy! Max Sarin’s art is the perfect amount of silliness to match Allison’s happy-go-lucky scripts, and the pages are beautiful throughout. Without telling you how much I enjoyed every little detail, I’ll leave it here. Each new volume of Giant Days is like a comfort blanket for my head and heart - John Allison somehow never lets me down! The fifth volume continues the improbably high quality of this magnificent series - can’t wait to see how the gang do in their second year!

So excited for second year! Who knew a comic about putting together IKEA furniture could be this good?

November 2, 2016

Artemiy Nizovtsev

Giant Days just keeps being the best.

December 16, 2016

Liz

Clearly this hasn't come out yet but I'm counting it since I've read issues 17-20.

January 23, 2017

Eman

i just didn't like it it was meh

November 28, 2016

S.

Note: This collects my reviews of single issues #17-20, hidden under spoiler tags for ease of scrolling. TPB of this volume is as yet unpublished.ISSUE #17 (★★★★) ISSUE #18 (★★★):(view spoiler)[Allison’s ongoing saga about university life remains one of the most entertaining right now, but this issue felt like a devolution to me. We seem to have stepped over from melodrama to outright caricature. We’re no longer laughing at the absurdities of life on campus; instead, the jokes come at the expens Note: This collects my reviews of single issues #17-20, hidden under spoiler tags for ease of scrolling. TPB of this volume is as yet unpublished.ISSUE #17 (★★★★) ISSUE #18 (★★★):(view spoiler)[Allison’s ongoing saga about university life remains one of the most entertaining right now, but this issue felt like a devolution to me. We seem to have stepped over from melodrama to outright caricature. We’re no longer laughing at the absurdities of life on campus; instead, the jokes come at the expense of the characters... This effect is compounded by Sarin’s artwork; her drawing is cartoonish and exaggerated throughout, till it begins to feel artificial and forced. Even the stoic McGraw is not spared from her hyperbolic touch. As a result, all sense of authenticity is lost and the comic begins to feel less slice-of-life, more parody of itself.But where the book continues to shine is in the depiction of interpersonal relationships. Two characters who have never interacted before collide here: Daisy and McGraw. Yet their conversation feels relaxed and natural, proof that they’ve become well-defined characters in my mind, whose traits I could easily cross-match to derive their equation. I’m rooting for Esther and Ed to hook up someday, yet their scenes never frustrate because their friendship is thoroughly charming. Their vividly coloured panels are an eternal fount of laugh-out-loud moments! They’ve developed a unique dynamic, such that you can barely perceive the authorial voice.In terms of characterisation, I’m still waiting to see more from Susan, who has been neglected over the last few issues. I’d like to see some character growth soon, as opposed to bouncing her off of other characters... There’s no denying that the plotting here is haphazard and doesn’t attain cohesion until the very end. Likewise, Susan lurks at the periphery for the most part, but she joins Esther and Daisy at the close to deliver a heartwarming scene that reminds me why I still care about these characters. It’s especially great since I missed the trio’s banter while reading the previous issue.Old subplots are resolved and new ones are born, which is all good fun. I like the fact that Allison weaves several pop cultural references into his dialogue and narration. You get everything from nods to Seinfeld (The Art Vandelay Corporation! Hah!) to characters who quote John E. Lewis. Full of snark and wit, the dialogue enlivens the story, even if it feels like overkill from time to time... But reflecting on it now, I must say that as far as my rating is concerned, the fall from grace is less a consequence of Allison’s style than a fault of Sarin’s, whose technical handling of the characters borders on the unkind.------------------------------------------------Update: Turns out Comic Book Roundup has #18 at an average critic rating of 8.9, so what the fuck do I know? *shrugs* (hide spoiler)]ISSUE #19 (★★★★):(view spoiler)[Now that’s more like it. I was obviously very critical of the previous issue, but none of the problems I had with it have been carried over here. Instead, my only worry is that, once all the issues are out, this one will feel out-of-place, because it reads like a standalone. I can’t say yet if this is bad thing. After all, we’re hardly reading this comic for plot and continuity; we’re reading for the characters and the laughs... And this delivers on both those fronts.Esther, Susan and Daisy head for a three-day music festival where things go horribly wrong. Disasters, both natural and chemical, ruin our characters’ weekend, and they face these challenges in idiosyncratic fashion. The characters’ behaviour is very realistic, in so far as everything feels like the end of the world when you’re a teenager. There’s a comfort to the humour, even if the situations are overblown and formulaic. The art is definitely toned down, compared to #18, and only exaggerated when it needs to be, which is such a relief. I do think that it’s a bit stiff at the start, but it gradually gets more expressive and vibrant. (hide spoiler)]ISSUE #20 (★★★★)